D. Vincent Williams, ‘Down By the River’ – Song Review

D. Vincent Williams has a style country fans are already familiar with through the hits he’s penned over the last decade (James Otto’s ‘Just Got Lovin’ You’ is one of many). Now they’re sure to remember his voice, as his new single ‘Down By the River’ is a tall musical glass of iced tea after a dead-dog hot afternoon on the farm.

One’s reminded of the Soggy Bottom Boys before the first verse of the song wraps up. That sound — while successful for Ralph Stanley and company — hasn’t been duplicated on country radio since the early 2000s. There seems to be a gap that bluegrass music can’t cross, but Williams knows how to build bridges. It would take a straight jacket and lots of duct tape to keep one from dancing to this song. Even then, you’d sort of twitch your way out, like a butterfly bursting free from a cocoon.

“We’ll pack up the truck / Switch back the key / Crank up some tunes and turn up the heat / Nobody gonna know, nobody gonna see,” he sings before a chorus that comes early and often.

“Baby what do you say we go down by the river, down by the river, under that moon / Spend all night down by the river, you lovin’ on me, me lovin’ on you,” he sings in the chorus.

Almost lost in the pure country dancer is the fine picking and harmonizing Williams and his team do late in the song. The last half of the three-minute single is pure country tomfoolery. It’s going to take a year’s worth of over-thinking to keep this song from becoming a hit.

Listen to D. Vincent Williams, ‘Down By the River’

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